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Hookah
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free encyclopedia
This article is about
a traditonal smoking pipe. For divers supplied with breathing
gas from the surface, see
surface supplied diving
Egyptian hookah
Syrian chiller hookah
Armenian
priest relaxing with a hookah in
Jerusalem
A hookah (Hindustani:
हुक़्क़ा
/
ÍÞøÀ
huqqa)
is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass
based) water pipe device for smoking; originating in
India,[1][2]
that has gained popularity
especially in the
Arab World. A hookah operates by
water-filtration and indirect heat. It
can be used for
smoking many substances, such as herbal fruits and tobacco.
Depending on locality,
hookahs may be referred to by many other names (often of Arab,
Indian, Turkish,
Uzbek, or Persian origin). Arghile or Narghile is
the name most
commonly used in
Lebanon,
Syria,
Iraq,
Jordan,
Turkey,
Albania,Greece,
Israel,
Bulgaria
and
Romania, though the initial "n" is
often dropped in Arabic. "Narghile" is from the
Persian word "nārgil"
or "coconut". In Sanskrit nārikela (नारीकेल),
as the original,
primitive hookahs were made out of coconut shells.[3]
Shisha (ÔíÔÉ)
is from the Persian
word shishe (ÔیÔå,
literally translated as glass and not bottle), and is
primarily used for
water pipes in
Egypt and the Arab countries of the
Gulf (such as
Kuwait,
Bahrain,
Qatar,
UAE, and
Saudi Arabia) as well as
Morocco,
Tunisia,
Somalia and
Yemen. In
Iran it is
called ghalyoun or ghalyan (ÞáíÇä)
and in
India and
Pakistan it is referred to as
huqqa
(हुक़्क़ा
ÍÞøÀ).
The archaic form of this latter
Indian name hookah is most
commonly used in English for
historical reasons, as
it was in India that large numbers of English-speakers first
sampled
the effects of the water pipe.
William Hickey wrote in his Memoirs
that shortly after
arrival in
Calcutta in 1775:
|
“ |
The most
highly-dressed and splendid hookah was prepared for
me. I tried it,
but did not like it.
As after several trials I still found it
disagreeable, I with
much gravity
requested to know whether it was indispensably
necessary that I
should become a
smoker, which was answered with equal gravity, '
Undoubtedly it is,
for you might as well be out of the world as out of
the
fashion. Here
everybody uses a hookah, and it is impossible to get
on
without'.....[I]
have frequently heard men declare they would much
rather be
deprived of their dinner than
their hookah.[4] |
” |
[edit]
culture
[edit]
Middle East
[edit]
Arab World
Bedouin
smoking hookah, locally called "argileh", in a coffee house in
Deir ez-Zor, near
the
Euphrates River, 1920s.
In
the
Arab world, social smoking is done
with a single or double hose. When the smoker
is finished, either the hose is placed back on the table
signifying that it is free, or it is
handed from one user to the next, folded back on itself so that
the mouthpiece does not
point at the person receiving it. (Stories tell
Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar thought of it
as an
insult if the mouthpiece pointed at the person, but there are no
official facts.) Another
tradition is that the receiver taps or slaps the giver on the
back of the hand while taking it
as a sign of respect or friendship.
In cafés and restaurants, however, it is rare for each smoker
not to order an individual
hookah, as the price is generally low, ranging from $2 to $10.
Most cafés (called maqha— Arabic:
ãÞåì, "coffeeshop")
in the Middle East have hookahs
available. Cafés are very widespread, and are amongst the main
social gathering places
the Arab world (similar to the status
pubs have in the UK).
[edit]
Iran
Persian woman, in
Qajari dress seen here smoking the
traditional
Qalyan.
In
Iran, the hookah is known as a
ghalyoun (Persian:
ÞáíÇä) (also
spelt ghalyan or
ghelyoon).
It is similar in many ways to the Arabic hookah but has its own
unique
attributes. An example is the top part of the ghalyoun called 'sar'
(Persian:
ÓÑ=head),
where the tobacco is placed, is bigger than the ones seen in
Turkey. Also the major part
of the hose is flexible and covered with soft silk or cloth
while the Turkish make the
wooden part as big as the flexible part.
There are mouthpieces called 'Amjid' (ÇãÌیÏ)
that each person has his own personal one,
usually made of wood or metal and decorated with valuable or
other stones. Amjids are
only used for their fancy look. However, all the Hookah Bars
have plastic mouth-pieces.
Use of water pipes in Iran can be traced back to the
Qajar period. In those days the
were made of sugar cane. Persians had a special tobacco called
Khansar (ÎÇäÓÇÑ,
presumably name of the origin city). The charcoals would be put
on the Khansar without
foil.Khansar has less smoke than the normal tobacco
[edit]
Turkey
Hookah smoking by
coffee shop in
Diyarrbakir 1909
In
Turkey, hookah is smoked on a social
basis, usually in one's home with guests or in
cafe with friends. Most cities have hookah cafes where hookah is
offered with a non-
alcoholic drink (mainly tea). This is mostly for health reasons
rather than cultural
reasons. Often people will smoke hookah after dinner as a
replacement for
cigarettes. In
bigger cities such as
Istanbul,
Ankara,
Izmir, and
Adana, restaurants may have dinner &
hookah specials which include meal, beverage
(alcoholic/non-alcoholic), Turkish coffee
and hookah.
In
certain parts of the country, people use hookah cafes to watch
popular TV shows,
national sports games, etc. and smoke hookah to socialize.
Once
the centre of Istanbul’s social and political life, the hookah
is considered one of
life’s great pleasures by the locals today.
[edit]
Israel
Hookah
for sale in
jerusalem at the
shuk
In
Israel, the hookah is prevalent among
Middle Eastern
Jewish immigrants from
Iran
Iraq,
Turkey and
Yemen (collectively known as
Mizrahi Jews). Hookah use is also
common in the Arab home where families will commonly smoke after
a large meal or at
a family gathering. Many Jewish families have also adopted this
custom, although
individual usage patterns vary according to culture heritage and
custom. Hookahs are
becoming increasingly popular within Israel particularly among
tourists. Shops selling
paraphernalia can be found on most high streets and markets.
Most nightclubs also have
hookahs. In
2005, due to an increase in use among
youth, a campaign has been launched
by
The Israel Cancer Association
warning against the hazards of hookah smoking, and
the
IDF has forbidden the use of hookahs
by soldiers within its bases.
[
edit] Other Asian countries
[
edit] india
In
the
Indian subcontinent the hookah is
becoming better known, and cafés and
restaurants that offer it as a consumable are popular. The use
of hookahs from ancient
times in India was not only a custom, but a matter of prestige.
Rich and landed classes
would smoke hookahs. Tobacco is smoked in hookahs in many
villages as per traditional
customs. Smoking molasses in a hookah is now becoming popular
amongst the youth in
India. It is a growing trend amongst
youngsters and adolescents. There are several chain
clubs, Bars and coffee shops (such as Mocha) in India offering a
variety of hookah.
The
new trends emerging are that of non-tobacco hookahs with herbal
flavours. Several
modern restaurants are famous for this.
[edit
]
Pakistan
In
Pakistan, hookahs have become very
popular in the cosmopolitan cities. The Hookah
or Sheesha craze hit
Karachi and the rest of Pakistan
following the opening of
Damascus Restaurant
in 1999. Many clubs and cafes are offering them and it has
become quite
popular amongst the youth and students in Pakistan. This form of
smoking has become
very popular for social gatherings, functions, and events. There
are a large number of
cafes, restaurants, and chill out places offering a variety of
sheesha and hookahs.
[edit]Malaysia
Malaysia
too has seen an increase in sheesha use and cafes offering
sheesha pipes. in[5]
the
Philippines, the popularity is vastly
growing, in the capital's most cosmopolitan city,
Makati; various high-end bars and clubs offer hookahs to
patrons. In
Afganistan, hookah
has been popular, especially in
Kabul, for some time. "Chillam", as is
called the Afghan narghile.
Although hookah use has been common for hundreds of years and
enjoyed by people of
all ages, it has just begun to become a youth-oriented pastime
in Asia in recent times.
Hookahs are most popular with college students and teenagers,
who may be underage and
thus unable to purchase
cigarettes [6]
[edit]
south Africa
In
South Africa, hookah, colloquially
known as a hubbly bubbly, is popular amongst the
Cape Malay,
Indian population, where it is smoked
as a social pastime.[7]
However,
hookah is seeing increasing popularity with white South
Africans, especially the youth.
Hookah bars are relatively uncommon, and smoking is normally
done at home or in
public spaces such as beaches and picnic sites.
In South Africa, the terminology of the various hookah
components also differ from other
countries. The clay "head/bowl" is known as a "clay pot". The
hoses are called "pipes"
and the air release valve is known, strangely, as a "clutch".
[edit]
Europe
In
Spain, the use of the hookah has
recently increased in popularity. They are usually
readily available at tea-oriented
coffeehouses, called teterías
in Spanish, which are often ran by Arab immigrants or have some
other sort of affinity with the
east. Hookahs are usually sold at
prices between €10 and €70, and hookah tobacco and charcoal is
easily
found in those same coffee houses, or at stores run by eastern
immigrants. Immigrants and native Spanish alike enjoy this
custom, and it is usually seen as a lighter way of
smoking than
cigarettes. Buying one's own tobacco and hookah is usually
noticeably
less
expensive than ordering hookahs at a coffee house.
Hookahs
are also becoming increasingly popular in
Moscow and other Russian cities
Many bars employ a "hookah man" or "niam" which is commonly
pronounced "ni-eem
(Rus. кальянщик tr. kal'yanshchik), often of middle-eastern
appearance and wearing an
approximation of Arab or Turkish costume, to bring the pipes to
customers' tables and
wrappings may be provided to each person at the table for
hygiene reasons.
Hookahs
are popular as well in
Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. All
the youth hookah
fashion looks the same way it looks in Russia.
Indian restaurants but are most
commonly found in
Lebanese restaurants and
Egyptian-
run "hubbly-bubbly" bars. Concentrations of these hookah
establishments are often found
in close proximity to University campuses, as on
Rusholme's
Curry Mile in
Manchester
or in
Oxford, and they cater to a mixture of
British and Middle-Eastern clientel amongst
students. A ban on public smoking was enacted in Scotland in
2006, and a similar ban has
taken effect in England on July 1st 2007. Hookah bars have since
been closed, as there is
a complete ban of smoking in enclosed public areas; however,
some businesses have
remained open, functioning as normal cafés.
Hookaah has been recently very popular in Indian Youth and
places like Mocks and
Sigaaras have made it very popular with Metropolitan cities like
Mumbai.
Hookah smoking has also risen in popularity in
Germany, particularly in
Berlin and
Cologne, where many hookah bars exist due in part to a
relatively large
Turkish
population. Hookahs are also very easy to acquire. During the
2006 World Cup, many
booths in the area outside of the Zoologischer Garten Bahnhof
specialized in selling the
water-pipes and flavored tobacco. In addition, many people
create homemade hookahs
due to the relative ease of construction and the high cost of a
quality pipe. Hooka (locally
called Shisha) bars are even commonly found in towns with just
100,000 inhabitants.
In
Italy, hookah bars are still not so
common, but their number is increasing, as hookah
(usually known only as narghilè) smoking is currently gaining
favor and seen as less
dangerous and irritating for other nearby then cigarettes (yet,
it is covered by the no
smoke in public locals law if not for dedicated places or
rooms). As a matter of note the
italian government banned the selling of the usual hookah wet
and fruits flavoured
tobacco as it does not pass under the statal monopoly on
tobaccos (Monopolio di Stato)
and, more important to health, is not regulated by precise rules
before selling, unlike the
normal, dry tobacco, and being wet have actually more
possibility of being of low
quality, partially degraded or containing colonies of bacterias
which could not be
completly killed by ember's fire while smoking
In
Sweden, hookah smoking is on the rise.
Cheap hookahs and hookah-related products,
like tobacco and charcoal, are now available in the many
kiosk-like businesses run by
immigrants, mostly of middle-eastern origin, found in the larger
cities. Hookahs are
mostly used by teenagers and immigrants, but the use is slowly
becoming more
widespread. Hookah bars and similar establishments are still
very rare though, in part due
to anti-smoking laws which forbids smoking in restaurants and in
public buildings.
In
the
Czech republic, hookah is relatively
common in many
tearooms (usually cost
between 100 and 150
CZK). Hookash are usually sold in
specialided orient-shops and
tearooms at prices mostly between 500 and 2500 CZK. Local names
for hookah are
"šíša", "vodnice", "voďár", "vodní dýmka", etc …
Hookah
('vesipiip' in Estonian) has also gained major popularity in
Estonia, where it has
caused contoversy amongst the troubled parents. Still, you can
hardly find any party or
(youth) gathering without a hookah.
[edit]United
States and Canada
Main article:Hookah
lounge
Recently many cities, states and countries have implemented
anti-smoking
policies.
In
most jurisdictions, Hookah business can be exempted from the
policies through special
permits. Some permits however, have requirements such as the
business earn a certain
minimum percentage of their revenue from alcohol or tobacco.
In some cases Hookah bars have been forced to close or consider
alternatives, such as
offering non-tobacco based maʿasel. In many cities though,
hookah lounges have been
growing in popularity - particularly near college campuses or
cities with large Middle-
Eastern communities
[edit]Mexico
In
Mexico hookah bars have gained
popularity in recent years, becoming a popular trend
among young people. Some places are simply hookah cafes, while
others are night-clubs
offering hookah along with alcoholic beverages. They are often
located at fashion zones
like La Condesa or Santa Fe. The increasing popularity of the
hookah is also due to the
Middle Eastern immigrant families that have been settled in
Mexico for some time now.
The smoking of the hookah has also become a social pass time for
week end afternoons.
Although there is an increasing demand for hookah there are
still few places that offer
this pleasure. Unlike in Middle Eastern countries it is not
habitual to smoke a hookah
while, or immediately after a dinner. The smoking of hookah is
done later usually in the
late afternoon, and very commonly use alcoholic beverages (such
as vodka or tequila) as
filters instead of the traditional usage of water.
edit]
Structure and operation
[edit]Components
A look-through of the components of a hookah
Damascene
woodworkers creating wood for hookahs, 19th century.
Excluding
grommets, a hookah is usually made of
five components, four of which are essential for its operation
[edit]The
bowl
Also known as the head of the hookah, the bowl is a container,
usually made out of clay
or marble, that holds the tobacco and coal during the smoking
session.
[edit]Hose
The hose is a slender tube that allows the smoke to be drawn.
The end is typically fitted
with a metal or wooden mouthpiece.
[edit]Body,
Gasket, Valve
The body of the hookah is a hollow tube with a gasket at its
bottom. The gasket itself has
at least one opening for the hose. The gasket seals the
connection of the body of the
hookah with the water jar. The gasket may have one more opening
with a valve in it for
clearing the smoke from the water jar not via the hose.
[edit]Water
jar
Placed at the bottom of the hookah, the water jar is a
container which the smoke from the
tobacco passes through before it reaches the hose. By passing
through water, the smoke
gains moisture. This makes inhaling the smoke of the hookah
easier than a cigarette's.
Also the water jar allegedly functions as a filter for the
smoke. The level of the water has to be higher than the lowest
point of the body's tube in order for the smoke to pass
through it. Liquids other than water may be added, such as a
strong mixture of
alcohol,spirit and/or fruit juice.
[edit]The
plate
The plate is usually just below the bowl and is used for "dead"
coals from previous
smoking sessions. It is not vital for the operation of the
hookah.
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